Taiwan yesterday thanked G7 foreign ministers for emphasizing the importance of peace in the Taiwan Strait to global security and prosperity, and supporting the nation’s participation in international organizations.
The G7 foreign ministers’ meeting was held on Monday and Tuesday in Fiuggi and Anagni, Italy, where the participants called for the Indo-Pacific region to be kept free and open, and expressed serious concern for the situation in the East and South China seas.
The ministers in a joint statement reiterated their governments’ “strong opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion,” and added that there is “no legal basis” for China’s sovereign claims over the seas.
Photo: AFP
“Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is indispensable to international security and prosperity. We call for the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues,” they said.
“We support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations as a member where statehood is not a prerequisite and as an observer or guest where it is,” they added.
Beijing was urged to abide by the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration’s 2016 ruling on the South China Sea that upheld the Philippines’ claims in the contested waters, they said.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement said that Taiwan sincerely welcomed the comments by the world leaders and their firm support for the nation.
“Taiwan as a responsible actor in the Indo-Pacific will continue to strengthen its collaboration with G7 members, and safeguard the universal values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law,” the ministry said.
The nation has and will join forces with like-minded partners toward defending a rules-based international order, regional and global peace, and peace, stability and property in the world, it added.
The G7 ministers also said that they are “deeply concerned by China’s increasing support of Russia in its illegal invasion of Ukraine.”
They expressed concern over the human rights situation in China, including Xinjiang and Tibet, and the erosion of civil liberties in Hong Kong.
They called on China to observe its treaty obligations to maintain the free institutions of Hong Kong and not conduct activities aimed at undermining or disrupting democratic institutions in other nations.
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